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Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

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Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#81
post #69
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Melatonin is not like a sleeping pill where more will necessarily make you more drowsy. It is a hormone that signals to your body that it is time to sleep. I can't find it right now, but there was a study of different doses in a large number of people that determined that just 0.2mg was more effective than larger doses for most people. And I've found that's true for me too. When I use melatonin, I use 0.2mg, and I fa…

How do you dose it though? Lowest dose I can find is 1mg pills and even those are pretty rare in my country. Do you get 1mg pills, crush them and measure out on precision scales?

I've heard 0.3mg recommended as a dose and I had a bottle of small 0.1mg pills.

Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#82
post #77

I wonder how many folks that are taking Melatonin are coffee drinkers? I spent years trying to crack my sleep issues. Blackout curtains, magnesium malate / citrate, no electronic devices for an hour before bed, CBD oil, even stronger CBD oil, different doses of Melatonin, 5-HTP, valerian extract, sleep apnea tests. It never really significantly occured to me that it would be coffee as I believed I had ruled this out.…

Once I learned the half-life of caffeine is 5-9 hours, I started a rule where I only had caffeinated coffee before noon, and decaf after. Night and day difference (heh) in my sleep quality. Perhaps 12pm didn't work for you because caffeine stuck around longer in your body compared to mine. Did you ever try an earlier cutoff time?

[deleted]

Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#83
post #55

Melatonin is not like a sleeping pill where more will necessarily make you more drowsy. It is a hormone that signals to your body that it is time to sleep. I can't find it right now, but there was a study of different doses in a large number of people that determined that just 0.2mg was more effective than larger doses for most people. And I've found that's true for me too. When I use melatonin, I use 0.2mg, and I fa…

I use 0.25mg and agree completely. The most annoying part is I can't find any pills less than 1mg so have to do a shitty job of separating them into 4 quarters.

can be sure whether the content is equally distributed across all quarters ?

Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#84

Hmmph... I'm taking 20mg most nights. One 10mg at bedtime, then another 5 hours later if I wake up again. Even that isn't enough to really put me to sleep if I'm stressed out. For me, "more is more" seems to be true...

> For me, "more is more" seems to be true...

Sounds like its not working too good for you, so I don't understand why you would write that.

Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#85
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Melatonin is not like a sleeping pill where more will necessarily make you more drowsy. It is a hormone that signals to your body that it is time to sleep. I can't find it right now, but there was a study of different doses in a large number of people that determined that just 0.2mg was more effective than larger doses for most people. And I've found that's true for me too. When I use melatonin, I use 0.2mg, and I fa…

I always wonder if some of the self reported dosage variability for pills comes from differences in absorbtion of pills. Maybe some ppl's stomach acids or bacterial flora destroy particular molecules more or prevents absorption more than in other ppl?

Sublingual tablets are available which result in a much more reliably fast absorption. I recommend them for anyone who wants less variability from their melatonin use.

Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#86
> I've suffered with 2.5mg before for long enough to understand that it doesn't work for me, no matter how many studies you have with 95% CL that the dose is much lower. The 5mg tablets work much better for me.

Well, have you tried 0.5mg and lower? That was the point of the article, I think.

Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#87
> 5. I try to use melatonin for sleep, but it just gives me weird dreams and makes me wake up very early

Story of my life. I just noticed because of this article that I have more weird dreams since I'm taking melatonin. Yesterday I took one and woke up at 4am after having a super weird dream.

Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#88
post #77

I wonder how many folks that are taking Melatonin are coffee drinkers? I spent years trying to crack my sleep issues. Blackout curtains, magnesium malate / citrate, no electronic devices for an hour before bed, CBD oil, even stronger CBD oil, different doses of Melatonin, 5-HTP, valerian extract, sleep apnea tests. It never really significantly occured to me that it would be coffee as I believed I had ruled this out.…

Once I learned the half-life of caffeine is 5-9 hours, I started a rule where I only had caffeinated coffee before noon, and decaf after. Night and day difference (heh) in my sleep quality. Perhaps 12pm didn't work for you because caffeine stuck around longer in your body compared to mine. Did you ever try an earlier cutoff time?

Same here, except a 3pm cutoff has been adequate. That said, I usually have just one cup a day, and many (most?) other coffee drinkers seem to have more per day than I do. How long it stays in the body is about both how much coffee _and_ how late.

If I were a heavy enough coffee drinker, maybe I'd even have to limit myself to before 10am only, to get sleep improvements?

Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#89
post #77

I wonder how many folks that are taking Melatonin are coffee drinkers? I spent years trying to crack my sleep issues. Blackout curtains, magnesium malate / citrate, no electronic devices for an hour before bed, CBD oil, even stronger CBD oil, different doses of Melatonin, 5-HTP, valerian extract, sleep apnea tests. It never really significantly occured to me that it would be coffee as I believed I had ruled this out.…

Once I learned the half-life of caffeine is 5-9 hours, I started a rule where I only had caffeinated coffee before noon, and decaf after. Night and day difference (heh) in my sleep quality. Perhaps 12pm didn't work for you because caffeine stuck around longer in your body compared to mine. Did you ever try an earlier cutoff time?

I don't think there is a hard rule around half life times, individuals metabolise it differently. Its also not just about the caffeine leaving your system, but the impact of cortisol being increased along with any other stresses you might have on any given day.

I honestly prefer not drinking it all now. I operate better, feel more relaxed and its nice not having an addictive dependence to plan around (although its a less problematic one as coffee addiction is well catered towards). It's one of the best things I have ever done to improve my life, why would I want to try and sneak a bit back in.

Re: Melatonin: Much More Than You Wanted to Know (2018)

#90
post #69
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Melatonin is not like a sleeping pill where more will necessarily make you more drowsy. It is a hormone that signals to your body that it is time to sleep. I can't find it right now, but there was a study of different doses in a large number of people that determined that just 0.2mg was more effective than larger doses for most people. And I've found that's true for me too. When I use melatonin, I use 0.2mg, and I fa…

How do you dose it though? Lowest dose I can find is 1mg pills and even those are pretty rare in my country. Do you get 1mg pills, crush them and measure out on precision scales?

You take syrup drops. One drop is ~150 mcg.
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